Whenever Christians face difficulty, we almost always turn to the Psalms.
Here in the psalms, we find words to describe what we’re feeling.
Here we understand that we’re not alone in our trouble.
Here here in the Psalms, we find that there is hope in the midst of the storm.
We read the Psalms, and we find our story is written before it ever occurred.
I mean, it’s no wonder the first book published by the Puritans.
Was the Bay Psalm Book printed in 16 40.
It was not possible for them to print the whole Bible.
So they printed the psalms and asked why they printed that portion of the scripture instead of other portions.
1 author replied, because there was no other collection that so encompasses the range of human experience and the wonder of god’s response to that experience.
The puritans needed such arming, not the hardship imposed on them in those early years, not the harshness of the element the scarcity of provisions, the regular visitation of sickness and death, the attacks of enemies and betrayal of friends, or the weakness of sinfulness in their own hearts and minds.
None of this surprised them or left them defenseless because they had already read it all right there in the Psalms.
And that’s why when we did this new book that I told you about, this whole book is about the psalms.
It’s the sheltering psalms, and the psalms are what we turn to when we’re going through difficult times.
And just the reading of the psalms brings blessing without comment, without messages or lessons, But when we go behind these psalms and we research the reason behind their having been written, the blessing is doubled and we will never again be able to read the Psalms without remembering all that was going on to cause it to be written.
Well, such is the case with our Psalm today.
To understand it, we must go back to a period in the history of Israel when things looked mighty black.
For the people of God. It was the year 07:01, and Sennakarib was king of Assyria.
Now, Senakarib was an expansionist and was leading the dreaded of Syrian army through Syria into Israel and on south to Judah.
At the time of Synakarib’s rampage, Hezekiah was king over Judah.
He was assisted by the prophets Micah and Isaiah who taught him to trust God and do right.
And King Hezekiah led the people of Judah in a great revival. He reinstated the Passover.
He reestablished the temple as the central place of worship, and he called the people back to obedience to god.
We read these words concerning hezekiah in the book of Second Kings. Here’s what it says.
He did what was right in the sight of the lord, according to all that his father David had done.
He trusted in the lord god of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him for he held fast to the lord He did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
And the Lord was with him. He prospered wherever he went.
As we begin our story, the Northern King of Israel had already fallen to Assyria and the people of Israel were carried away captive.
And now the bloodthirsty army of Assyria was on its way to Egypt and anything and anyone that got in its way was destroyed.
Standing in the path of Sennakrib’s intentions was the little kingdom of Judah and the walled city of Jerusalem.
In 07:01 BC, the Assyrians sent their armies to Jerusalem.
And as the leaders of the Assyrian army stood outside the walls of Jerusalem, they began to taunt the people and blasphemed Jehovah God Here are their words, straight from the eighteenth chapter of second kings.
Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you. For he shall not be able to deliver you.
Nor let Hazakaya make you trust in the lord saying, the lord will surely deliver us.
Do not listen to Hazakaya. They said.
At the same time, as the threatening message from Sennakarib reached the ears of Hazakhaya.
He also got a message from Isaiah, the prophet.
In his time of trouble, Hezekiah was going to be given a word from the lord.
And now here is Isaiah’s Message to Judith King, hezekiah. Second Kings chapter 19 verses 6 and 7.
Thus, you shall say to your master, thus says the lord, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Surely, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
And the Bible says that hezekiah took the threatening letter from Sennakarib, and he went up to the house of the lord and he spread the letter out before the lord, and he began to pray.
And here is his prayer. He prayed.
Now, therefore, oh lord, our god, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the lord god, you alone.
What a picture of our current situation?
On the 1 hand, we’re listening every day to the voices of fear and dread.
The virus of fear has been almost as dangerous as the coronavirus itself.
And when we allow these words of fear to totally control us, we are paralyzed.
And immobilized and rendered useless to god and to those who look to us for hope and help.
But on the other hand is the voice of god or in this case, the voice of Isaiah speaking for god, it is not a voice of reckless abandon that calls us to be oblivious to our enemy.
No. It’s a voice of promise and of hope, a strong reminder that we serve a mighty god and he is in control and we do not need to be afraid.
So here’s the picture. The dreaded Assyrian army has surrounded the city of Jerusalem.
Judah’s leader hezekiah has prayed for god’s miraculous delivery, and god is about to intervene.
Now let’s look at Second Kings 19 35 and 36.
And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians, 185000.
And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead.
So Synakarib King of Assyria departed and went away returned home and remained in nineveh.
What an incredible victory god won for his people that night, walled in by trouble, surrounded by certain disaster on paper, Judah was about to be destroyed.
But god intervened, and god caused all the people to know that he was god.
And to commemorate that victory, Psalm 46, this hymn of praise was penned.
Maybe it was written by hezekiah, perhaps by Isaiah, maybe by an unknown poet laureate of Judah, but there is little that it was written to immortalize the triumph of the angel of the living god over the army of the foe.
John Phillips says this. He says so great and glorious was the victory.
So marvelous, the deliverance that you and Christian alike have turned instinctively to Psalm 46 whenever disaster strikes.
And it seems that all hope is lost. Psalm 46 is where we go.
For this Psalm assures us, that god can handle in his will, in his own good time and way, things which seem like total disasters to us.
Ladies and gentlemen, do we not need Psalm 46 for this day?
So as we examine the 11 verses of this Psalm, Let us notice first of all that there are 3 clearly marked out sections.
Each of the sections has praise for god’s deliverance and each has a different picture of the reason for deliverance.
As we face our troubles and our walled in situations, We can learn from this Psalm how to have victory in our own lives.
We can discover how to weather our storms and continue to be triumphant in our lives.
Here then are 3 principles for times of trouble in your life.
Number 1, when trouble comes, retreat to your refuge. Psalm 46, 1 through 3.
We learn in this Psalm in the first part of the verse that we have an awesome refuge.
Psalm 46 1 says God is our refuge. And he is our strength.
This doesn’t say that God has been a refuge and strength or that he will be.
The verse is present tense. The lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Does this first have an expiration date? Are there a limited number of refills?
Will it ever lose its potency? No.
No and never So here are 5 things from the 90 first Psalm about awesome Refuges.
Psalm 91 is kind of a commentary on this.
First of all, we learned that our refuge is safe.
Psalm 91 9 and 10 says because You have made the lord your refuge, no evil shall befall you.
You’re safe and god never separated from his love. Our refuge is safe. Number 2, our refuge is strong.
Psalm 90 17A thousand may fall at your side and 10000 at your right hand.
But it shall not come near you. Numbers don’t matter when it comes to god’s refuge.
God and you are greater than any opposing force. Our refuge is safe. Our refuge is strong.
Number 3, our refuge is secure Psalm 91 5.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day.
People who are secure in god Just don’t live in fear of what might happen in their life.
Our refuge is safe. It’s strong. It is secure. And it is solid. Notice Psalm 91 verse 2.
I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my god, in him, I will trust.
Think of the solid walls of a mighty castle or a fortress. God is like that. Solid, immovable, indestructible.
Our refuge is safe. It is strong. It is secure.
It is solid, and number 5, it is a shelter.
Psalm 91 verse 1 says, he who dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.
A shelter is a covering something over our heads.
When you dwell under the shadow of god, you are covered by him forever.
And the word refuge literally means a place to which you go quietly for protection.
And we see hezekiah going up to the temple, spreading out the threatening letters before the lord in the temple.
And he has found his refuge and he has found his strength.
We have often heard our choir sing these words.
You are the source of my strength you are the strength of my life.
To sum it all up here are the words of deuteronomy 33 27. The eternal god is your refuge.
And underneath are the everlasting arms.
It was 10/31/1517 sometimes called the fourth of July of Protestantism.
Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the cathedral of Wittenberg and the Protestant reformation was ignited.
1 of the important products of the reformation was the rediscovery of congregational singing.
Luther had strong convictions about the use and power of sacred music, and he often expressed his convictions in statements like this 1.
Quote, if any man despise his music as all fanatics do, for him, I have no liking.
For music is a gift, an grace of god, not an invention of men.
Thus, it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful.
And again, he he said, the devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the word of god.
And finally, Luther wrote these words.
He said, I would allow no man to preach or teach god’s people without a proper knowledge of the use and power of sacred come.
And the single most powerful hymn of the Protestant Reformation movement was Luther’s, a mighty fortress is our god.
And this hymn became the battle cry of the people, a great source of strength and inspiration, even for those who were martyred for their convictions.
This hymn, a mighty fortress is our god, has been translated into practically every known language and it is regarded as 1 of the noblest and most classic examples of Christian humanity.
Did you know There are more than 60 translations of this text in English alone.
When difficulty or discouragement would come to Luther or to his friend Philip Malankhen.
Luther would say, come Philip, let us sing the 40 sixth Psalm, and they would sing themselves into a victorious spirit again.
And the first line of this national hymn of Protestant Germany is fittingly inscribed on Martin Luther’s tomb in Wittenberg.
And you can still read it and appreciate it if you ever travel to that historic spot.
Yes, it is true. You have an awesome refuge. God is your refuge.
Number 2, you have an accessible refuge.
Continue reading in Psalm 46, and the second part of the first verse describes our refuge as a very present help in trouble.
The word for trouble could be translated in tight places.
God is a very present help when we are in tight places.
These words very present convey the idea that god is easy to be found.
And when he is found, He is enough for any situation we might ever encounter.
Here’s what Charles Haddon spurgeon wrote about this phrase. He said, god never withdraws himself from his afflicted.
He is more present than friend or relative can be. Yes, more nearly present than even the trouble itself.
To all this comfortable truth is added to consideration that is assistant comes at the needed time, said spurgeon god is a friend in need, Hannah, friend indeed.
And this is what god said to Moses And it was meant for us as well.
God said it this way. My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
So you have an awesome refuge. You have an accessible refuge. Here’s the third thing.
You have an ageless refuge. Versus 2 and 3. Psalm 46, 2 and 3.
Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.
The Psalm now reminds us that nothing can change the safety and security of the refuge we have in God.
If you think of the coronavirus pandemic and the other disasters of our time, if you picture in your mind, the mountains being cast into the sea, and the earth itself being destroyed and the waters of all the oceans overflowing their banks or the mountains shaking to their very foundation.
If you see that with your mind’s eye and you begin to con contemplate the total destruction of the earth, Here’s what the Thomas wants us to know.
When all that is happening, you still have nothing to fear.
Your refuge is secure in the midst of it all. Remember, God is your refuge. He is awesome.
He is accessible and he is ageless.
That’s what I think the Psalmist was writing about in Psalm 102.
I’m letting the Psalms teach us the Psalms So let’s read what it says.
Of old god, you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands They will perish, but you will endure.
Yes. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak, you will change them, and they will be changed.
But you are the same, and your years will have no end.
The children of your servants will continue and their descendants will be established before you when all that is described in this happens, when the world is changing, when everything that we know is reality is no longer reality.
There is a reality, and that reality is almighty god. He is the ageless refuge.
So the first of this Psalms section teaches us that when trouble comes, we need to retreat to our refuge.
We need to go to god and and and hide in his shelter.
But here’s the second thing in verses 4 through 7, when trouble comes, rediscover your strength.
Psalm 46, 4 through 7, Here’s the first part of that. What is your strength?
You have a power within. Listen to the fourth verse of Psalm 46.
There is a river whose streams shall make the city of god the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high.
And notice what this is all about.
Whenever an ancient city thought they might be held captive in their own city, They feared most of all that the water supply would be cut off from outside the walls.
So when Hezekiah realized that the Assyrians were coming toward Jerusalem, He took great care to make sure the city would be protected.
Out in the kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem, there is a deep spring called the spring of Gihon.
This spring was Jerusalem’s water supply and had to be protected.
So Hezekiah redirected the waters of the spring through a conduit that was 1777 feet long, hewn out of solid rock.
And by means of this conduit, hezekiah was able to divert the water from the spring of Gihan into a reservoir, which was inside the city walls of Jerusalem.
The conduit project was done with such precision that the Assyrians never found out about it and did not know that in the midst of the walled city, with their enemies on every side, the people had a source of water that would never run dry.
What a powerful reminder to all of us who are walled up by the coronavirus and all of its pandemic problems.
We have a source of supply that is within us in the midst of the trouble.
We learn what this is all about when we come to the new testament, John 4, verses 13 and 14, says Jesus answered and said to her Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
And again, in John 7, on the last day, that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink He who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
So we have a secret power within the Holy Spirit is within us.
In the midst of all of this stress, all of this difficulty.
If we know god, we have a fountain of living water within us, and we can count on the Holy Spirit.
But number 2, we have a secret person within us here again from the Psalm verses 5 through 7.
This is what the Thomas wrote. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.
God shall help her just at the break of dawn, the nations raged. The kingdoms were removed.
He uttered his voice. The earth melted The lord of host is with us.
The god of Jacob is our refuge, Silah.
Like the fourth person in the fire with the 3 Hebrew children, God is in the midst of our trouble with us today.
Like the lord Jesus asleep in the back of the boat when the storm came upon the disciples, Jesus is with us in the storm as well.
He has promised to be with us even to the end of the age.
And you know, the word with us is the word emmanuel. The lord of hosts is emmanuel.
When Martin Luther and his friend, Philip Malankton were fighting the battles that came as the result of the reformation, sometimes Malankton would lament that he feared the reformation would be destroyed before it could survive infancy.
And Luther would comfort him with these words He would say, Malankton, if we perish, Christ must fall to for he’s in the midst of us.
And if it must be so, be it so, I had rather perish with Christ that great ruler of the world than prosper with Caesar.
And oh, how right he was.
Proverbs 18 10 says, the name of the lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it, and are safe.
So we’re 2 out of 3 when trouble comes retreat to your refuge.
Number 2, When trouble comes, rediscover your strength, you have a power within you, you have a person within you.
And number 3, when trouble comes redirect your thoughts.
Once again, Psalm 46, 8 through 11, and first of all, we learn to review the works of the lord.
Come says the psalmist behold the works of the lord who has made desolations in the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in 2, he burns the chariot in fire.
I love the expression in the story of Hezekiah’s victory when the text says this Second Kings 19 35.
And he came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians And when people arose in the morning, there were the corpses all dead.
I remember the first time I read that, of course, if they’re corpses, they’re all dead.
What is the deal about that?
But what the deal about it is this, the people of god didn’t have to do anything except behold what god had done.
The battle was his all the time, even when they were failing to realize it, even when they thought they were they were finished.
We will take great courage and comfort in our lives today.
If we just take a few moments and review what god has already done, what he is doing.
We should read our bibles with this goal in mind.
We should even read the newspapers with this goal in mind.
See how god triumphs, even in the midst of tragedy, See how he gets glory to his name, even the midst of the coronavirus, and even when it seems like our economy is falling apart.
How great is our god? His wonders are everywhere evident for the person who will look.
I got a little email this week from 1 of the viewers of our online service.
And she said that she had taken some time this past week to write down The 10 most important things god had done for her in her life, and she shared them with me.
And I thought what a tremendous idea What a great way to get perspective on what’s happening with you right now.
Take some time and really think about this You’re gonna have to eliminate a few things, add a few things, get your master list, and then edit it down.
Here are the 10 greatest things. God has done for me. In my life.
And husbands, your wife better be on that list, same lives, your husband. Review the works of the lord.
And then secondly, Reclaim the words of the lord verses 10 and 11. Notice what the psalmist says.
Be still and know that I am god. I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth. The lord of host is with us.
The god of Jacob is our strength, Silah.
These verses call us to be quiet long enough to hear the lord to know that he is with us.
Could I just insert right here, my friends that perhaps 1 of the reasons why we have been sheltered in our homes is so that god can get us quiet.
In our lives, as they go in the routine that we follow, it is so hard for us to become quiet.
And when we become quiet, when we are still and we know that he is gone, Then we learned that he has a plan for our future.
This is god’s plan to be exalted among the nations, to be exalted in the earth and he also has plans to be exalted in our circumstances.
Hear me now carefully. God will be exalted in the coronavirus.
He is being exalted in the coronavirus.
And the more we see what he is doing, the more we trust him to just keep on doing it.
For the second time, this Psalm reminds us that the lord of hosts is with us, and he tells us that the god of Jacob is our refuge.
So who is this lord of hosts?
He is 1 and the same with the angel of the lord who smote a hundred and 85 a thousand Assyrians in answer to Hezekiah’s prayer.
He is the lord of hosts, and he is with us.
He did not send another angel to help us. He is with us himself.
We hear sometimes about people having their own guardian angel, Why would you want an angel when you can have the lord of the angels, Jehovah God himself, and he is with us.
Be still and know that he is god. That’s what the scripture says.
When author and pastor Gordon Mc Donald was a high school senior at the Stoneybrook School in New York.
He was required to take a class called Senior Bible, a class taught by the School’s infamous headmaster Doctor.
Frank e Gablein, or as the boys called him, Megabe.
Doctor Gableine was a deep thinking devout Christian who was serious about Bible memorization.
In fact, he was so serious about scripture memorization that he required each of his students to memorize more than 300 separate bible verses over the course of their final year in school.
I like the way McDonald recalls the weight of these expectations. Here’s what he wrote.
He said, if he met a student on the pathway from the classroom to the dining hall.
He might say, Gordon, give me John 13 34, please.
The headmaster expected a boy to summon from his memory, 1 verse out of 300 already memorized and to launch into its recitation without faltering.
Many a student in senior Bible took detours around the campus during those times of day when doctor Gabiline was expected to be walking from 1 place to another, and you surely can understand why.
Psalm 46 was 1 of the passages Doctor. Gableline assigned to his students.
And when he called on students to recite the Psalm or write it out in its entirety, he expected them to be perfect, not only about the words, but also pronunciation and capitalization.
As a result, his students often included verbal clues in their practice patience to help identify each capital letter and every mark of punctuation.
For example, Big g God is our refuge and strength. Comma, a very present help in trouble period.
Gordon and the other boys did not understand the value of Doctor.
Gabrielline’s instruction during their year Senior Bible.
In fact, they complained to anyone who would listen about the headmaster’s outrageous expectations.
They complained to everybody that is Gabe himself, of course.
But decades later, Gordon McDonald came around, and he now treasures the gifts he received during his year with Doctor.
Gabrieline. Here’s how Gordon told the story in 1 of his books.
He said a few days ago, my doctor called me. Gordon, this is doctor b.
I have some difficult news for you.
There’s a tumor in the back of your head in the lining of the brain. It’s not malignant.
You won’t die from this, but it will have to come out And that means surgery and some recuperative time in the next few months.
Gordon McDonald said, I have spent my whole life.
Helping other people face doctor call moments like these. Now it was my turn.
And as the doctor went through further details of my situation, the first thing that began to surge through my mind.
The very first thing was big g god is our refuge and strength, comma, a very present help and trouble period.
Big t, therefore, we will not be afraid period period period.
He said when I was a teenager, a brilliant and godly man pumped me full of scripture.
You could say that he bullied us with all the insistence on punctuation spelling and capitalization, but now his effort is paying off.
Psalm 46 is the first thing I have turned to so that I can order my private world and enlarge the spiritual work I will have to do in the next few months.
Thanks to Doctor. Gabrieline and Psalm 46.
I may be concerned, I may be cautious, but I am not fearful exclamation point.
I hope that is the confidence you have in your life as well.
People ask me all the time what to do about the fear that seems to be raging in the hearts of people.
Let me tell you the answer to that fear is big g god.
He is the 1 who has promised to be with us. He is your refuge. He is my refuge.
But that is only true if we know his son Jesus Christ personally.
The Bible says that we come to god through Christ that he is the way, the only way to god.
And my question to you, as you listen to this message and we close this service, Do you know this god through his son Jesus Christ?
Have you ever accepted Christ into your life?
Have you ever in the midst of your challenging days bowed before god and said, dear god, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son.
I believe that he is the savior of the world that he died on the cross, that he came out of the grave on the third day victorious over death.
And I believe that he loved me and wants me to be his.
And lord Jesus, I accept you as my savior. I invite you into my life. I repent of my sin.
I want to live for you all the days that are left to me.
If you put Jesus Christ on the throne of your life, you will have god in your heart.
And big g god He’s enough for whatever you’re facing or will ever face.
And to that I add with Gordon McDonald, exclamation point.
Father, thank you for this great Psalm.
Thank you that you are our refuge Thank you that we have the resources of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in our lives.
Thank you that we have the record of what you have done in the past and what you are doing and what you will do.
Thank you that when we are still and know that you are god, we feel that incredible peace come over us, which is described in the new testament as the peace which passes understanding.
Father, we need that peace now in our homes, in our hearts, in our families.
For all those who have prayed with me to receive Christ, may the peace of god descend upon them and theirs May they know that this god of whom we have spoken is their god and that he is in in the midst of them in their family.
Thank you for hearing our prayer.
Thank you for giving us this portion of your word to encourage us for such a time as this, and now we pray that the word of god will be blessed to our hearts.
Keep the enemy from stealing it from us and let us go forward in the strength of it this week.
I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.